The “Long Term” Definition

Yesterday it was announced that the new one-a-month handgun law which is going to take effect next month will have another undesired consequence besides making honest citizens criminals – the law did not provide an exclusion for legitimate gun shops.

Don’t even get me started on how the bureaucracy will be overloaded by criminals waiting in line to get their one-a-month hand gun.

However, this oversight is just a recent example of why this state, and the country, are on the brink of failure.

The phrase “long term” to most of us “peasants” means a decade or more. When we make a “long term” decision we are not thinking about tomorrow or next year. Yet to our elected officials “long term” means the next election; to our captains of industry – next quarter.

When a CEO makes decisions based on “getting as much money as I can right now and damn the consequences” he/she is not looking out for the long term benefits of the company, its workers and shareholders.

When politicians create a bill which makes life more difficult for the “peasants” (and I’m not talking about the handgun bill particularly) just to garner some votes they, in fact, violating the public trust – and that’s the best case scenario.

The worst case – well – we’re about to find out, aren’t we?

This country and this state needs to get back to the foundations which made us great.Decisions need to be thought about from all angles, not just from a lobbyist who is pushing an agenda or a one-time trick to make your stock skyrocket before destroying the company.

“Long term” needs to be redefined.CEOs need to start getting “long term” bonuses instead of cash (such as stocks) and politicians need to start thinking about future ramifications of their actions instead of simply passing the buck to the next guy.

By the way, the company I work for is an employee owned, privately held company and bonuses are given out in company stock – a fine example of how this great country was built.